Saturday, April 16, 2016

I Am Not Throwing Away My Shot: Pulled the trigger on Hamilton tickets!

Many people have assumed that I am part of the first wave of publicity for it, because for a while I was talking about it NON-STOP. (which is also the title of one of the songs!)

I've realized that I am to Hamilton what 13 year old girls are to the musical Wicked, or what a bunch of NJ frat boys are to Bruce Springsteen. I am a super fan-boy. It's in my ear or on one of my devices nearly everyday.

I love the way it manages to meld history and story into music, the inventive and complicated rhymes weaving story, bravura, history, democracy, character and plot into a beautifully executed slip knot. I also love how it's old-fashioned and brand new all at once. It is an excellent piece of artwork.

Here's the video I watched first that made me fall in love with it-- the creator Lin-Manuel Miranda performing the first song in 2009 at the White House. At the time it was going to be just an album, but it turned into a full-fledged musical.

I haven't seen the show yet, and when I heard it was coming to Chicago (ostensibly from September to mid-October, but the run is now open ended), I immediately started planning how to see the show. I didn't want to Throw Away My Shot (another song from the show). If I missed this opportunity, I'd feel Helpless, never be Satisfied, and would feel as if The World Turned Upside Down (you got it, all songs from the show. Click each link to see the lyrics and hear the song at the same time on Genius.com . You are welcome!)

Because I do often write about cultural events and get free review tickets, I am definitely pursuing that angle, but that will only give me two tickets, and my 7 year old son wants to see it too. (There's definitely some lyrics/situations that are above him/over his head, but overall he loves the musical too. And I don't want him to miss it!)

I then tried for group tickets, thinking I could find a group of 20 friends/relatives/neighbors/etc. that would like to get the hottest ticket in Chicago. But those are already sold out, I am on the waiting list.

After some hemming and hawing by my cheapo self, I decided to do the only thing that would guarantee me seats. I bought a 3 ticket season subscription to Broadway in Chicago.

Right now there are some season tickets still available, but the pickings are slim.

We ended up spending nearly $1000 to get a 5 show subscription. (to be fair, I'm pretty interested in four of them, and my son will be interested in at least 3-- the other shows include Hedwig,The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime, Aladdin, and The Bodyguard) We don't have great seats- we are in the upper balcony all the way on the left. But at least we are in!